Eilish and Cameron are mismatched in flashy pop documentary that misses the subtlety of her music
F
or a long time concert tour films were seen as a cash-in. Ask a music fan for their favorite, and they’ll probably answer with something that isn’t really a concert film at all, such as Madonna’s deliciously gloves-off documentary Truth or Dare or Stop Making Sense, Jonathan Demme’s high-concept performance art classic starring Talking Heads.
But in recent years the concert film has become a bona fide cinematic event for super-fans wishing to relive the experience as well as those who draw the line at paying a month’s rent to see their favorite musician. In 2023, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour became the genre’s biggest-grossing film of all time, taking over $250m at the global box office. (Swift herself took home an estimated third of that figure thanks to an exclusive distribution deal with AMC Theaters). Beyoncé’s Renaissance film extended her album as a cultural moment, while this year Baz Luhrmann’s Epic: Elvis Presley in Concert has packed out multiplexes and a concert documentary from the K-pop boyband Stray Kids topped the global box office.
Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour in 3D is the biggest and most anticipated concert film since Swift’s: a reported $20m production co-directed by James Cameron and Eilish and billed as “reinventing the concert experience”. Cameron and his team filmed Eilish’s tour over four nights in Manchester, UK, last summer with 17 cameras strategically hidden around the singer’s stark, minimal stage, which is erected in the center of arenas. Without any of the dancers, costume changes or moveable set pieces of her A-list pop peers, Eilish’s show rests on her undeniable onstage magnetism and the near religious devotion of her fans. The new film gives you more than a front-row seat to the show: it plunges you into the arena, swooping from the cheap seats to up close by Eilish’s side. But the technical wizardry largely feels like the emperor’s new clothes in a film that hits the familiar beats of every straight-to-DVD concert movie out there.
